Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm new to marine fish keeping and I have a question about puffers. Which one should I get considering this is my first salt water tank. My tank is a 30 gal. w/an eclipse 2 filtration system. It will be housed w/a clown fish, either a dwarf volitan or dwarf fuzzy lion fish, a copper band butterfly fish, and probably a goby or two as well as 2 damsels. Is this too many fish? Also, the tank is taller than it is wide.

Hi.

The general rule of thumb that I was told in the beginning, and something that I have stuck to (with very happy results) is 1 inch of fish per 2g of water. Therefor, if you have a 30g tank.. you should only have 15 inches of fish.

If you plan to keep the fish healthy and alive, I might suggest a bigger tank in the short future.
The Dwarf lionfish itself will grow to around 8 inches long. The Copperbanded Butterfly will also grow to 8 inches long.
Dogface Puffer will grow to about 9.5 inches long.
The Porcupine will grow to about 1 ft 6 inches long.

Both of the puffers require a hiding place. They can be a little shy at first.

Also, if and when you eventually go to a bigger tank, I would recommend going with either a sump or a wet/dry filter. The hang-ons and the canister filters, while great for freshwater, can kill a salt water tank. However, on the smaller tank you might want to invest in a protien skimmer... I personally think no saltwater tank should be without one.

There are a lot of good articles to read out on the net about setting up and maintaining a Salt Tank...

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I've heard bout the 2 gal. per 1 inch of fish rule, just wasn't sure if one was better than other because of temperment or size or anything. I called one of my lfs's and the woman there recommended a porcupuine puffer. (don't remeber why) I highly trust and value thier opinion so I guess I'll go with the porcupine. I do plan to upgrade to a bigger tank in the future but wasn't aware that dwarf lion's got that big.... I thought they stayed fairly small.